Star Ocean 2: Requiem
by Otherworld Sin
Summary: Life on Expel, Post-Wise Men. Rated for violence and later profanity. Has original characters. Please R/R
1. Concerto

Chapter One: Concerto. "Hurry up, Su!" The young woman stopped investigating the weapons long enough to send a fierce glare at her friend. Su Raja was a warrior from the slowly rebuilding continent of El, and she bore the marks of someone who had fought the demons. She had several scars criss-crossing her arms, and a single savage wound had left the right side of her face permanently scarred. She had long reddish-brown hair and sad grey eyes, and although she was short she was also strong. Everything she wore was black, from the well-cut but worn clothes to her custom armor. "You wanted me to enter this tournament, so now you can wait," she said quietly. It was rare for her to raise her voice, and those who knew her were smart enough to avoid antagonizing her beyond a certain point. Although she seemed calm, there was a boiling pit of fury just beneath the surface. She let her hand rest lightly on the haft of a finely-crafted axe.  
  
"But. but it's the LACOUR Tournament!" Lear said. He was a Heraldry Mage, slightly older than Su but not half as mature. He was flamboyant, loud and rambunctious; all the hall-marks of a student of the legendary Celine Jules. He wore long silken robes in about twelve different colors, and had an annoying habit of suddenly letting sparks of light loose; a trick which had caused more than one panic in crowded areas. He was obsessed with the Lacour Tournament, but not brave enough to enter himself. He'd said, more than once, "I'd be skewered the instant I set foot in the Arena." Mages had been allowed to enter the Tournament for the first time the previous year: on, as some believed, the advice of the King's chief scientist, a youth named Leon Geeste. They had proven to be formidable opponents, and more than one supposedly excellent fighter had fallen under the onslaught of Heraldric power. "Entering the Tournament, then?" the shopkeeper asked. Su nodded. "You'll be wanting a good weapon. How about I show you some of my swords, I have a couple which are just perfect for a woman your size." "An axe will be sufficient, thank you," Su said. She hefted the closest one, a fine thing made from a metal known as Laconia, and etched with a pattern which would make blood drain from it quickly, minimizing the time spent cleaning it. "A piece of advice," Lear whispered as she moved towards the armor, "Never, EVER comment about her size or her choice of weapons. It makes her really grumpy!" "Come on, Lear," Su called. "After this I want to go back to the Inn and rest." She handed her entry papers to the shopkeeper to have them checked, and nodded a silent thanks when he was finished. When he finally caught up to her, Lear was breathless and annoyed. "What, you're not even going to go shopping? I thought women loved shopping!" He found himself on the end of a patented Su glare. "I shop when it is necessary, and at no other time. Maybe other women take pleasure in wasting their money, but not me." "You are one seriously weird chick," Alex told her as they entered the Lacour Inn, which was more on par with a hotel than with the small homely accommodation which the name implied. "You're just going to spend the next 28 hours until the tournament in a single room?" "Bite me," Su said, her eyes flashing. "I did not ask you to come with me, you forced yourself into my life! Now allow me to do this my way." "I'm so dead," he muttered, and followed her to the reception. "So, so dead."  
  
Rena and Claude C. Kenni, recently married and expecting their first child, considered themselves to be the luckiest couple alive. Together, they had survived impossible situations and even saved the universe, and were now quite happy to settle down into a new life on Expel. And in order to help finance said new life, they were sailing from Cross to Lacour so that Claude could enter the legendary Tournament of Arms. On the same boat were Celine Jules, the legendary Heraldry Wizard and Rena's maid of honor at their recent wedding, Chisato Madison and Dais Flac who, rumor had it, were planning a small ceremony of their own soon, and Noel Chandler, an absent-minded and animal-loving Nedian. Rena leaned against Claude and sighed happily. "I love boats," she declared. "I always love watching the waves and listening to the birds. There's simply no better way to travel!" "True," Claude said. "On the Calnus, we were restricted to watching holograms of the stars, because the light and radiation would blind us. I got really claustrophobic sometimes." "You mean you couldn't even look out the windows?" Rena gasped, and Claude laughed. Celine emerged from below-decks, yawning slightly. "Good morning, darlings!" she said, even though the sun was well over the yard-arm by that point. "How is everyone?" Claude grinned. Celine's habit of sleeping in was relatively new, and mostly because she had taken on several teenaged students since their return, all of whom were nocturnal. "We're both wonderful," Claude said. "No morning sickness today." "I wonder how much longer it will be?" Rena asked. The gestation for a Nedian was supposedly five months, but because Claude was a human, nobody was entirely sure just how much longer Rena would be waiting. It had been six months already. "When it's ready," Celine said. "The child will come when it's ready. I suggest you just enjoy what few nights of uninterrupted sleep you have left!" "Don't we know it!" Rena laughed. "Seriously, though, Rena, please be careful," Celine cautioned. "We don't know when labor will start, and I'd hate it if nobody was there to help you." "I'll be fine," Rena said. Dias and Chisato heard none of this conversation. They were, in fact, right at the other end of the ship, enjoying the sun and the slow but steady rocking of the boat. "The captain says we should arrive in Lacour soon," Dias said. "The Tournament starts tomorrow, so it will be excellent timing on his part." "I wish you hadn't entered," Chisato said. "I'm so worried that you'll get hurt." "I won't," he promised. "The only fighter on Expel who proves any kind of danger to me is Claude, and we promised not to hurt each other." "You never know," Chisato murmured, looking deeply into Dias' dark eyes. "Just promise me." "I promise," Dias replied, and kissed her. Noel gazed up at the fluffy clouds above. He hadn't been terribly enthusiastic about the idea of attending a competition between warriors, but Rena and Celine had joined forces to convince him to come, to act as a healer for anyone seriously injured. He briefly pondered the merits of this. It wasn't as if Expellians had any kind of healing Heraldry, so it was the best course to have Rena and himself on standby. However, he was firmly opposed to unnecessary violence. He'd helped clear the Mars forest of monsters, and the resulting carnage had left him feeling slightly sick. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to witness thinking, rational beings hacking into each other like animals. Sure, he'd helped save Nede and, by default, the universe, from the Ten Wise Men, but that had been different. That had been personal. But this was a display of bloodlust. He couldn't, wouldn't support such a thing. The ship's cat wandered over to him and rubbed against his face. He stroked its fur and continued thinking, as the ship rode ever closer to land. 


	2. Allegro, Fortissimo

Chapter 2: Allegro, Fortissimo  
  
Dammit, I'm getting tired. Su parried yet another blow from her opponent, and ducked under the beast-man's slashing claws to deliver an earth-shaking blow with the butt of her borrowed axe. He fell like a tree, and she sighed with relief. Three opponents down, and now she'd made it to the semi-finals. Her first two opponents had been fairly easy. The first had been a young man who obviously had more arrogance than talent. The second had been slightly harder, a Heraldric Mage who had been sensible enough to keep up a constant barrage of weak spells. Not to hurt her, but to slow her down. He had, however, made the mistake of chanting a longer spell while she still had energy left. She'd knocked him over with a single blow. Alex met her at the exit gate, carrying a bottle full of ice water. She was grateful. she was also really hot and definitely fatigued. She gulped it down and wiped the sweat from her face before turning to Alex. "Well, any word on my next opponent?" she asked, shrugging the leather straps from her shoulders and stretching. "You're not going to like it," Alex said, "But. we think it's Dias Flac." Su choked, and swore quietly. "Dias Flac? The Terror of the Northern Lines? THAT Dias Flac?" Terror of the Northern Lines was in reference to the attempted invasion of monsters last year, and the amazing number of monsters which Flac had disposed of in battle. "Yup," Lear said, a distinct note of fear in his voice. "It's not too late to pull out, nobody will think any less of you." "Except me," Su said. "If I pull out now, I will never forgive myself. So what if I get hurt? Nobody ever got anywhere without taking risks." "Miss Raja?" asked a guard, who had approached while she was talking to Lear. "Your next fight is starting as soon as the current one finishes." "Thank you," she said to the guard, and started pulling her straps back on, before hefting her axe and frowning. "Dias Flac. bet you never thought of this, hey Tala?" "Did you ask me something?" Lear asked, helping her with the last couple of buckles. "No," Su said. "I was simply talking to the dead." "I've said it before, I'll say it again: You are one seriously weird chick, Su. Just don't get killed." Su's reply was drowned out by the announcer, and she ignored him as she stepped back into the harsh sun of the arena. She could see a shadowy figure at the other end, but it was hard to see them from this distance. "We welcome you to the semi-finals of this year's TOURNAMENT OF ARMS!!!!" the announcer roared, and Su fought the instinct to cover her ears. "What an exciting match this promises to be! At one end, the challenger, a young woman who has defeated each opponent decisively and with strength we rarely see! I introduce, Su Raja!" There was a decent amount of applause, and she could almost hear people thinking 'Strong? She's only a child!' "At the other end, five times champion of this tournament, your favorite fighter and mine, the legendary Dias Flac!" There was a lot more cheering for Dias. No surprise, as he was the favorite, and the champion no less than five times over. She was his elder by a year, but her scars made her look older still. His eyes, she'd heard, were so cold that he froze most of his opponents before striking. "Cross Wave!" Su leapt out of the way of his opening attack, and landed in a crouch. Those energy waves had been fast - too fast. She was going to have to end this straight away, or she was doomed. "Earth Rumble!" she yelled, slamming her axe into the ground and setting up reverberations through the entire arena. She was glad to see Flac stagger: she used to opportunity to rush inwards with her axe ready to attack. Suddenly he simply wasn't there. One second he'd been right in front of her, the next - gone, vanished into the sand. Something hit her shoulder, bit deep and drew blood. She gritted her teeth and ducked under another unseen blow, before the third and fourth went through her side and cracked her skull respectively. It only took him two moves to defeat me, Su thought as she started collapsing onto the sands, watching her own blood seep into the dusty brown. He's. incredible.  
  
Noel watched in horror as the medics carried the young woman into the hospital. She was bleeding profusely from a wound on her shoulder and another in her side, and there was a rapidly growing lump on the back of her head. "What happened?" he demanded, already preparing the Fairy Heal spell to save her life. "Dias Flac," one of the medics said, checking her pulse. "Strong but getting weaker. It's lucky that she managed to dodge the second blow, or she wouldn't be here now. Plus she's small, so he couldn't hit her as hard." "Fairy Heal," Noel chanted, letting the healing energy flow into the woman. He watched in relief as the wounds faded and vanished. He wondered where she had gotten that scar, and who had botched the treatment. Nobody with any kind of skill would have left the edges so ragged. "She's stabilized," the second medic said, placing a pillow under her head and wrapping her in a blanket. "Flac normally never goes all out on other Expellians." "Only on monsters," Noel admitted, remembering all the times he had seen Dias in battle. It was true: this girl, whoever she was, had managed to make Dias go all out. She must have shown extraordinary potential. Someone was yelling in the next room; suddenly the door slammed open and a young man with black hair and mage's robed stormed in, refusing to be stopped. "Su!" he yelled when he saw her lying on the stretcher-bed, her face pale. "Is she going to be alright?" "Yes," Noel said in a reassuring voice. "She just needs to sleep it off. Her size stopped Flac from hitting her too hard." And she managed to dodge one of his attacks. She must be very fast. "Well if I am supposed to sleep it off, you had better chuck him out." The voice was at odds with her face, smooth and calm, and too quiet. "He will never shut up if you let him start." The woman was sitting upright, one hand instinctively touching the scar. "Why do I feel so weak?" she asked. "Flac walloped you," the long-haired youth said, reaching out to touch her and then thinking better of it. "Luckily they healed you. although I don't know how they did it so fast. those wounds should have kept you out of action for months, but you're not even marked." "What?" The woman inspected herself, and was amazed to see that there really weren't any marks at all, not even a faint scar. "Well I will be damned," she muttered. "Nothing. Amazing." "It was you, wasn't it?" the man asked, giving Noel a piercing look. "I can sense the power in you." Noel nodded and smiled. "Noel Chandler," he said by way of introduction. "Alex Lear," the man said, "And this is my traveling companion, Su Raja." Su snorted in derision. "You are my companion, more like. I seem to recall that you followed me, not the other way around." A slight smile quirked the corner of her mouth. It added something to her: she was by no means beautiful, or even pretty, but she was full of energy and personality which seemed to make up for that. The door slammed open again, but this time it was Celine, looking harassed and worried. "Noel, Rena's in labor! It's started!" Su seemed to wake up a bit. "Someone is having a baby?" she asked Noel as Celine vanished again. "A friend. oh dear, I don't think any of us have delivered a child before." "Great," Su said, staggering upright. "Alex, go to our room and bring me the bag of herbs and the red bottle." Alex stood there, staring. "Go, you idiot!" He went. "Are you a mid-wife?" Noel asked, catching her as she stumbled. "Not exactly," she admitted. "But my older sister had seven children and I had to deliver three. Come on, I think I am going to need your help." Where did she learn to speak like that? Noel thought, even as he helped her walk. And what did she mean, 'had'? 


End file.
